Loyola-Chicago Advances To Final Four

Loyola-Chicago University is located in Chicago at 1032 Sheridan Road. From my doorstep, that's just 254 miles from home. This is why I'm jumping on the Loyola bandwagon this weekend. Well, that, and because the team just advanced to the Final Four, after a 78-62 victory over Kansas State on Saturday night!

Loyola-Chicago entered the tournament as a #11 seed and almost unknown to most of the country. The team joins Virginia Commonwealth, LSU, and George Mason as #11 seeds to make reach the Final Four. It's not supposed to happen this way! They were supposed to be one and done. But that didn't happen...it's a true Cinderella story.

The last time this school was in the Final Four was 1963. They won it all that year. I saw the Ramblers play in Cedar Falls against UNI earlier this year. I knew there was something special about this team. The Loyola-Chicago story reminds me of Hoosiers, one of the greatest basketball movie of all time.

Up next for Loyola-Chicago will be Michigan this Saturday, March 31st. Vegas casinos have Michigan posted as a 6-point favorite. You can watch the game on TBS, tip off time has not been announced.

For fans here in Eastern Iowa, we didn't have much to cheer for this basketball season. Both Iowa and Iowa State struggled and neither team was invited to the NCAA Tournament. So it's time to cheer for a new team the rest of the way...after all, they're only 254 miles from home.